The Naked City Blog

Exploring life in the city – Charlotte – and the greater metro region. Looking at urban design, transportation, growth, the built environment and more.

Mary Newsom is a lifelong journalist and observer of city life in the Charlotte region and beyond, with a focus on urban design, sustainable development, growth and city planning. She is associate director of urban and regional affairs at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute. Her blog reflects her views only, not necessarily those of the institute or of UNC Charlotte.
Contact: mnewsom@uncc.edu.

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Monday, February 11, 2013

Legislature 2013: Most 'pro-business session in N.C. history'?

'Snout houses' in Indiana. Photo: John Delano, Wikipedia.com

Ran across an interesting post from the blog of the local Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition, reporting the doings at a Friday forum the lobbying group held for legislators from Mecklenburg, Union and Iredell counties. Sponsors were REBIC and the N.C. Home Builders Association.

The session "gave home builders many reasons to be optimistic that 2013 would be one of the most pro-business sessions in North Carolina history," reports the blog. Read it in full here.

All the legislators on the panel agreed they'd support legislation similar to Senate Bill 731, which passed the Senate in 2011 but didn't make it through the House before the session died. That bill, sponsored by Sen. Dan Clodfelter, D-Mecklenburg, and Sen. Fletcher Hartsell, R-Cabarrus, would have limited munipalities' ability to regulate architectural details such as windows, doors and garage doors for single-family residential developments with five or fewer units an acre.

Planners informally called it the "snout-house bill," because one of the most contentious items in some zoning ordinances, including Davidson's, is a provision forbidding garages to project far in front of the rest of the house, dwarfing the front door and windows. Planners call those "snout houses," and say they create a street view that emphasizes cars over people. Home builders counter that on small lots it's more economical to build garages that way, and that cities shouldn't get so deep into architectural details.